Topic
Laughter
32 passages cited, from 2 classic reference works.
These works date from 1896–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Ecclesiastes 3:4ISBE · Nave A time for
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
- Genesis 17:17ISBE
Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
- Genesis 18:12ISBE
Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?
- Genesis 18:13ISBE
And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?
- Genesis 18:15ISBE
Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh.
- Genesis 21:6ISBE
¶ And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.
- 2 Kings 19:21ISBE
This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
- 2 Chronicles 30:10ISBE
So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.
- Nehemiah 2:19ISBE
But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?
- Job 5:22ISBE
At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
- Job 8:21ISBE
Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing.
- Job 9:23ISBE
If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.
Show 20 more
- Job 12:4 ISBE
- Job 29:24 ISBE
- Job 41:29 ISBE
- Psalms 37:13 Nave Attributed to God
- Psalms 59:8 Nave Attributed to God
- Psalms 126:2 ISBE
- Proverbs 1:26 Nave Attributed to God
- Proverbs 31:25 ISBE
- Jeremiah 20:7 ISBE
- Lamentations 3:14 ISBE
- Ezekiel 23:32 ISBE
- Judith 12:12 ISBE
- Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 7:11 ISBE
- Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 20:17 ISBE
- 1 Maccabees 10:70 ISBE
- Matthew 9:24 ISBE
- Mark 5:40 ISBE
- Luke 6:21 ISBE
- Luke 6:25 ISBE
- Luke 8:53 ISBE
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 37 references
laf'-ter (chaq, tsachaq, "to laugh," sechoq, "laughter"; gelao, katagelao):
(1) Laughter as the expression of gladness, pleasurable surprise, is the translation of tsachaq (Ge 17:17; 18:12,13,15; 21:6), which, however, should perhaps be "laugh at me," not "with me," as the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) (so Delitzsch and others; see also Hastings in HDB), not in the sense of derision, but of surprise and pleasure. In the same verse for "God hath made me to laugh," the Revised Version (British and American) gives in margin, "hath prepared laughter for me," and this gave his name to the son, the promise of whose birth evoked the laughter (Yitschaq, Isaac); gelao (Lu 6:21,25) has the same meaning of gladness and rejoicing; sechoq, "laughter," has also this sense (Job 8:21; Ps 126:2). It is, however, "laughed to scorn" in Job 12:4; the Revised Version (British and American) "laughing-stock"; so Jer 20:7; compare 48:26,27,39; La 3:14, "derision."
(2) Sachaq is used (except Job 29:24; Ec 3:4) in the sense of the laughter of defiance, or derision (Job 5:22; 41:29); in Piel it is often translated "play," "playing," "merry"
(3) La`agh is "to scorn" "to laugh to scorn" (2Ki 19:21; Ne 2:19); sachaq has also this sense (2Ch 30:10); tsechoq (Eze 23:32); sechoq (Job 12:4); katagelao (Mt 9:24; Mr 5:40; Lu 8:53); the simple gelao occurs only in Lu 6:21,25; see above. Katagelao is found in Judith 12:12, "laugh to scorn" (Ecclesiasticus 7:11; 20:17; 1 Macc 10:70, the Revised Version (British and American) "derision").
For "laugh" (Job 9:23) the Revised Version (British and American) has "mock"; for "mocked of his neighbor" and "laughed to scorn" (Job 12:4) "laughing-stock"; for "shall rejoice in time to come" (Pr 31:25), "laugheth at the time to come"; "laughter" for "laughing" (Job 8:21).
W. L. Walker
In the topical indexes
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.